Here were are only a few days away from Christmas, and I find myself just now getting started on some projects I intend to gift to family.

It’s not that I’ve procrastinated (although I am a world-class procrastinator), but rather a simple case of too much to do and not enough time to do it. I mentioned last week that I had been working on three major contracted projects simultaneously to the exclusion of just about everything else, and that included the annual woodworker’s ritual of becoming a satellite location of Santa’s workshop.

Whereas last year I had two gift projects that were major efforts planned long in advance – and, thus, were included in my regular work schedule – this year there are just three “little” projects I needed to work on. Being small, I’d hoped to fit these in whenever I could. It turned out that I couldn’t fit them in anywhere, and so here I am just days before Christmas getting ready to scramble these presents out of the shop.

On the plus side, wrapping up those three big projects last week means there’s not much to get in the way of several days of steady work in the shop. The projects are straightforward and not that time-consuming, I know exactly what I need to do, I have all the materials and supplies on hand, and the shop is even cleaned up and ready to rock-n-roll.

On the down side, a few of those projects just might still be a little sticky on the 25th …

A.J.